Perhaps
not many people regularly read non-fiction, especially when it might appear to
emanate from academic sources. Thus a title such as Development As Freedom by
Amartya Sen, if encountered on a book browse, might suffer immediate and
regrettable rejection. Subjects such as international politics, economic change
and human development considered via the writings of a Nobel Prize winning
economist might not suggest bedtime reading. But read again! And preferably
read many times, for this book surely places the word ‘human’ at the heart of
the development process and, because of that, is not only readable, it is an
absolute joy.
Sen’s
argument is simply encapsulated in the book’s title. As human beings change and
as the societies in which they live transform, development can be measured,
certainly perceived, and possibly achieved via greater life expectancy, access
to education, improved gender and social equality, increasing population,
technological progress, access to health care and a host of other life
enhancing and enriching phenomena that all of us now seem to take for granted,
bur, perhaps paradoxically, few societies actually achieve.
But
for Sen, and this is the truly optimistic core of the book’s message, is that
all of these identifiable and measurable phenomena are mere effects of a more
fundamental cause. Development, for Amartya Sen, is about increasing human
freedom. The concept includes freedom of choice, freedom to participate,
freedom to express and in fact any freedom that might be exercised by an
individual or community in the context of enhancing, not undermining, the wider
social groups or societies in which the people live. There is undeniably
something wider called society and it is thus society’s role to evaluate policy
and practice to ensure that social and economic change enhance the sum of
freedoms that people can claim.
But
let it also be clear that this is no neo-liberal, individuality-is-God,
markets-know-best diatribe. Development As Freedom is a concise, sometimes
intense, but always sympathetic look at various aspects of economic and social
change and the generality of development policy that can stimulate it. The
point is that the human race and the societies in which it lives make progress
for the common good when participation is widened, when inclusion rather than
exclusion is the goal, when the whole range of human potential, rather than
that of an elite in restricted roles, is allowed to blossom. And it is this
overall message that makes the book such a positive and enriching experience.
Early
on in the book, Sen sums up his approach by saying that “Poverty can be
sensibly defined as capability deprivation…” and thus that the alleviation of
poverty, in all its manifestations, allows human beings to develop whatever
capabilities they might have, capabilities that would otherwise never be
realised. Furthermore, greater social equality is more likely to provide
opportunity for the development of this human potential than any other route.
In
making his case, Amartya Sen deals the occasional body blow to a few nostrums.
Reassessing Adam Smith from the original, Sen identifies that the original
intellectual arguments on markets were at least partly aimed at countering the
power and influence entrenched interests of the time. Now those would have
certainly arisen out of the previous century’s tendency to grant and support monopolies.
Sen thus casts Smith as least partly as a moderniser, who wanted to transform
economic structures in order to transform society as he knew it. He also finds
in Smith an admission that opportunity might have more to do with birthright
than ability, or even availability of educational facilities. The champion of
the market principle, as we now know him, is here not seen to claim that
markets in themselves will always provide the most effective or efficient basis
for economic interaction.
Sen
also illustrates how so-called free markets might not work to the advantage of
the majority. He cites an example of a Pareto-efficient system in which 1000
people each give up one dollar, without caring too much about the transaction.
One person pockets the thousand dollars as profit and will clearly fight hard
to retain such privileged status. When opinion about how the society transacts,
it is likely that the individual who profits will speak loudly to maintain the
status quo and, given the status of economic success, the person will also have
access to the modes of expression needed. The thousand do, however, have the
right to vote and so democracy is at the core of any approach to enhance
freedom, but to be effective it has to function. Sen reminds us that there has
never in human history been a famine in any democratic society with a free
press.
Since
development, in Sen’s vision, is about developing the capabilities of all
people, it is clear that human development as a goal is first and foremost an ally
of the poor, rather than the rich and powerful. Modernisation theory is thus
merely a starting point for the process as Sen envisages it. But beyond this
beginning it must continue until participation is increased and real democracy
is achieved. Policy and practice should be continually evaluated to ensure the
proper spread and effectiveness of their goals. Development As Freedom is much
more than a description of what we are and from where we have come. It is
nothing less than a far-sighted and clear prescription for political practice
and provides a yardstick we might use to evaluate it.
